Voted 2011 Favorite Virginia Winery of the Year!presented by: The Farm Wineries Council

Awarded over 100 in medals in 2011 to date!The 9th consecutive year of surpassing 100!

Gray Ghost, a family owned and operated winery, is placing Virginia on the international wine map by producing internationally acclaimed wines from immaculate vineyards. All grapes are hand-picked and wine is aged in premium oak barrels. Full-bodied reds are unfiltered and lighter-styled wines are fermented at lower temperatures to enhance fruit character. This emphasis on quality resulted in Gray Ghost being named "Best of the East" by Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine four consecutive years!

A visit to Gray Ghost offers a knowledgeable staff, southern hospitality, beautiful picnic grounds and spacious indoor facilities. Ask about Gray Ghost's famous winery events, entertaining tours and the most popular volunteer harvest program in the state!

Children learn many things that are not taught at home. These may be learned in government schools, through the entertainment media, and in many churches that we would like rejected by them. During the teen years the socialization processes may lead them to many places we would not like for them to go. Yankee Nativism of the Deep North (what some of us call New England) was anti-Catholic, anti-Jew and anti all non-whites in a raw form of cultural and racial supremism derived from the radical nature of harsh Puritan radicalized Calvinism.

Yankee Nativism had long been viewed as mean, anti-Christian and barbaric by Southerners coming into the 1860's. In the same way traditional Southerners see socialism as violent, barbaric and anti-intellectual. Southerners like those in most classical civilizations of Europe did not see the common "racialism" of their day as a construct for some form of racial or eugenic supremism, and therefore not a social problem to be corrected by misled cultural engineering agents of a secular central government; in fact, social engineering was not seen as a legitimate activity of elected representatives.

The government was simply to “represent” the people within the framework of their constitution and to control their social lives or define their culture. Historically the more centralized the government the less tolerant rulership is of cultural diversities and the less “representative” it becomes of the citizenship. The size of government is directly related to the amount of and the quality of their peoples freedom and liberty. At best government is a negative force of coercion constantly seeking new ways to control the lives of those who empower it. Large governments are often referred to as “leviathans”, ancient and feared creatures of the seas. “Seas” represented large populations of people in ancient literature.

The insensitivity, the dominant anti-intellectualism, meanness and resulting violence and aggressions of militant socialism with its faithless egalitarianism and civil (not human) "rights" we see as a typical manifestation that at one time was unique to New England and which was forced on the Southern States through social, cultural and ongoing Marxist "reconstruction (indoctrination)" following the subjugation of our Southern States and their territories. Orthodox Christian Southerners still are not understood by most of the USA that we believe suffer from secular "yankeefication" through many decades. Orthodox Christian populations accept a degree of social definition and control through their churches and tend to resist having those tradition morals and values redefined by their civil governments; rather, their civil governments are defined by their culture and the quality of the spiritual life of the believers. In other words, the more spiritual a people the less government they need. When the spiritual commitment of a people wanes or goes into apostasy, the powers and authority of the civil government becomes more controlling. The Christian walk is always voluntary but the demands of a strongly centralized civil government are not. This makes the god of the state a very jealous and controlling god.--Timothy D. Manning, M.DivExecutive Directorwww.TheSouthernPartisan.com160 Longbridge DriveKernersville, North Carolina 27284Phone: (336) 420-5355Email: tim@thesouthernpartisan.com

A state district judge and three others have been indicted on multiple bribery charges, the latest in a feud between the first-term jurist and Collin County's district attorney.

Judge Suzanne Wooten, along with her campaign manager, James Stephen Spencer, and David Cary and Stacy Stine Cary, each face six counts of bribery and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity.

The felony charges stem from Wooten's campaign, in which she defeated longtime incumbent Judge Charles Sandoval in the 2008 Republican primary. The indictments accuse the Carys of giving Spencer up to $150,000 to fund Wooten's campaign in exchange for favorable rulings in her 380th District Court.

The indictments give no details about the court cases involved. They describe six payments, ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, and give a date each was deposited. Those dates run from Jan. 4, 2008, to March 14, 2008.

Engaging in organized criminal activity is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison. The bribery charges are second-degree felonies carrying up to a 20-year prison term.

Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.

The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration's nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago.

Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.

Naturally the undeniable failure is not the fault of our Historic First Affirmative Action President, but the “little kids with propellers on their heads” he chose to surround himself with.

If Matthews really wants to know his former messiah’s plans for a second term, I have a pretty good idea: 1) get reelected through voter fraud, media assistance, and a $billion smear campaign against the Republican nominee, financed largely by thuggish unions and Hollyweird degenerates; 2) confiscate our firearms; (Good luck.BT) 3) keep running up massive bills that cannot be repaid; 4) hook ever more people on government dependency; 5) raise taxes through the stratosphere; and 6) watch with a self-satisfied smirk on his face as the country he hates collapses.

The service will also integrate carols sung by the congregation and candle lighting for everyone, allowing all to share “the true light, which enlightens every man…” No charge for admission. The 7:00pm (Eastern time) service will also be webcast live.

The symbol of Green renewable energy, our saviour from the non existent problem of Global Warming, abandoned wind farms are starting to litter the planet as globally governments cut the subsidies taxes that consumers pay for the privilege of having a very expensive power source that does not work every day for various reasons like it’s too cold or the wind speed is too high.

The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying, in most instances the turbines are just left as symbols of a dying Climate Religion, nowhere have the Green Environmentalists appeared to clear up their mess or even complain about the abandoned wind farms.

For a while I have been receiving e-mails from a good friend who has asked me to investigate something weird about the Birth Certificates. He wanted me to take a look at them because they have certain numbers and other things printed on them that need an explanation.

When I looked at my own Birth Certificate, I noticed it was a copy of the original. So I went through old boxes and baby books that my Mom had saved before she died and found what I was looking for -- my original Birth Certificate. It was brittle and yellowed with decades of age but -- wow -- it was NOT the original!

What I have learned since is kind of like discovering that you are part of the Matrix. It seems none of us have our original Birth Certificates -- they are all copies. And the copies have a serial number on them, issued on special Bank Bond paper and authorized by "The American Bank Note Company." Huh?

The truth is stranger than fiction. But here it is:

It seems that back in 1913 the United States was short of cash. World War I had depleted the treasury and there were several really bad financial panics -- in 1907 especially -- so the country needed to print more money than it had as equity to restore confidence in the money supply and get the economy back on its feet.

The House Judiciary Committee has the oversight of all federal courts and the Justice Department, which includes US Attorney General Eric Holder. The HJC has repeatedly requested Kagan related material since this last summer, but Holder has not complied with any of the requests.

The HJC is trying to determine whether or not Kagan must recuse herself from the upcoming SCOTUS hearing of Obamacare. Federal law (28 USC § 455) covering the disqualification of justice, judge or magistrate judge states:

“(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States

shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his

impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

(b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following

circumstances:

(1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a

party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts

concerning the proceeding;

(3) Where he has served in governmental employment and in such

capacity participated as counsel, adviser or material witness

concerning the proceeding or expressed an opinion concerning the

merits of the particular case in controversy;”

Justice Kagan has been asked if she planned to recuse herself, but to date has refused to do so.

HJC chairman Rep Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas, wrote a letter to AG Holder on July 6 in which he asked:

“During her Senate confirmation, then-Solicitor General Kagan answered ‘no’ when questioned about whether she had ever been ‘asked about [her] opinion’ or ‘offered any views or comments regarding the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed health care legislation … or … litigation resulting from such legislation. Yet, documents released by the Department in response to Freedom of Information Act requests raise questions about that unequivocal denial.”

Last week, US Attorney General Eric Holder was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s involvement in the healthcare bill when she served at the US Solicitor General.

The position of Solicitor General was established in 1870 so as to free up the duties of the US Attorney General. The role of the SG is to defend or represent the US government in cases that are heard by the US Supreme Court. Elena Kagan was appointed to the position of Solicitor General in March 2009 by President Obama and held that position until her appointed to the high court in May of 2010.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has also repeatedly requested documents and information concerning Kagan’s role as SG and how that may have played in the implementation of Obama’s health care legislation. Additionally, there are questions as to Kagan’s role as SG that may have had a direct bearing on two aspects of a federal law which defines when it is necessary for when a Supreme Court justice is required to recuse themselves from a case.

After Holder’s testimony before Congress, a letter was sent to Holder that was signed by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.), and Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah), who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Parts of the letter read:

“Unfortunately, your Department has rejected all Congressional oversight requests for information about her role in the Obama Administration’s defense of this law.”

“You recently told the Senate, incredibly, that you were not even aware of Congressional requests on this topic, and that your Department handled her duties as relates to such matters in a way that is belied by the facts, namely that you physically removed her from all meetings discussing litigation.”

Yet there are witnesses that state that Kagan was present and not physically removed on more than one occasion where the health care legislation was discussed.

In typical fascist government style, Holder lies, disregards the law to protect Obama’s inner circle of comrades. This inner circle believes they are above the law and immune to any punitive action that may be due them for their crimes.

However, it seems that no matter who requests the necessary information concerning the matters, AG Holder repeatedly refuses to comply and release the information. In congressional procedures, this could be interpreted as a charge of contempt of Congress. Unfortunately, the punishment for a contempt of Congress charge is 1-12 months in jail and/or $100-$1000 fine. Yet several months in jail may be just what Holder needs (plus a number of years). One thing is certain and that is the HJC needs to take whatever legal action is necessary to remove Holder from his office.

Have you noticed that the globocaustals always insist that scientists who are skeptical about the "science" of global warming must be in the pocket of Big Oil? As is so often the case when criticism is coming from the Left, it's merely an assumption that their critics must be doing the same thing they are:

It recently came out that James Hansen, one of the two or three most prominent global warming alarmists on whose work the IPCC reports rest, “forgot” to report $1.6 million in outside income, as required by his government contracts. Is that significant? Well, yes: A handful of scientists, including Hansen, have gotten wealthy on climate alarmism. They have an enormous financial interest in the faux science they have done so much to perpetrate. It is more likely that the Pope would renounce Christianity than that Hansen, Michael Mann, etc., would change their minds about global warming, regardless of the evidence. (I say that because the Pope has far more intellectual integrity than the climate alarmists.)

Al Gore has gotten rich off his "warnings" of nonexistent global warming. James Hansen has gotten rich off his "warnings" of nonexistent global warming. And yet none of the Bezemer 12 happened to get rich off their warnings of a global financial crisis that actually happened. I haven't either.

Now, why would it be more profitable to provide warnings of something imaginary than it is to provide warnings of something real. And why would anyone assume that either Al Gore or James Hansen, neither of whom are actual scientists, are neither corrupt nor motivated by the pecuniary gain they have demonstrably realized?

If you’re going to be at home for Thanksgiving, better buy that turkey quick so it has time to thaw. But unless you’re a Religion of Peacenik, don’t buy it from the Islamopanderers at Butterball:

Customer service representatives from Butterball, one of America’s most popular Turkey brands, confirmed to WND that the company’s whole turkeys are — without being labeled as such — slaughtered according to Islamic “halal” standards.

“Halal slaughter involves cutting the trachea, the esophagus and the jugular vein and letting the blood drain out while saying, ‘Bismillah allahu akbar’ — ‘in the name of Allah the greatest,’” explains Pamela Geller, author of “Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.” “Many people refuse to eat it on religious grounds. Many Christians, Hindus or Sikhs and Jews find it offensive to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic ritual.”

The cognitive dissonance at work in N's email, written in response to yesterday's column, is remarkable:

I like Ron Paul but I don’t like him closing all our bases around the world and bringing our army back home. This isolationist view is DANGEROUS and will only empower and embolden our enemies and actually bring us closer to WORLD WAR, this time right at our DOORSTEPS!

Is that what you want???

If Reagan said America was that “shining city on the hill”, dimming it around the world with an isolationist view will only make stronger the darkness of this world. We need to keep shining that light shining everywhere, bud. The cost of peace ain’t cheap, but war is a hell of a lot more expensive!

Yes, that is precisely what I want. All military bases closed, all American troops back in the USA. To argue otherwise is indicative of a shockingly stupid perspective which is not only illogical, but blatantly ignores both the historical record and the observable reality of present U.S. foreign policy.

First, the argument about "the cost of peace" is a non-starter. America is presently engaged in military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Iran. (Don't kid yourself, there are already CIA and most likely special forces in Iran right now.) It may still be active in Libya. That is hardly peace.

Second, the USA is bankrupt. It can't afford ANY military operations at all. Thanks to the expected failure of the Congressional supercommittee, automatic defense cuts must be made. As the global economic contraction continues, the U.S. military will have to shrink.

Third, it is American military operations that have not only brought enemies to our DOORSTEPS, but have brought them into the country. The Saudis who attacked the Two Towers on 9/11 were angry about the U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia and were "studying" in the United States. There are far more Somalis in the USA than there were before U.S. troops invaded Somalia and more Iraqis than before U.S. troops invaded Iraq.

Isolation is not dangerous. American strength and wealth waxed during its isolationist period and has declined steadily ever since, just as both the Roman and British empires declined once they started attempting to police the world. As I wrote in the column, the irony is that the one Republican presidential candidate whose policies would strengthen the American military and best protect American interests is constantly attacked by stupid and ignorant Republicans who wrongly believe that the more troop deployments that take place, the stronger the nation is.

No wonder they also fall for the Neo-Keynesian argument that the more money you spend, the wealthier you become.

Mr Kris Atta Pappoe, a media consultant/social anthropologist who lives in Ghana, has sent a message to my face book page as follows:

Nov 17 2011 - “Dear Annie – It’s a pity what is happening in SA with regards to the Boers/Afrikaners. It’s a great pity that this Great country could slide back into racial bigotism. Tell you what? Any Boer farmer interested in settling in Ghana is welcome. I personally have 5,000 acres of prime farmland that is available. Thanks for letting us know, Annie. “

"Doomed." Spoken by a guy who has seen all the Gunwalker Scandal documents & interview transcripts.

=========

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa told The Daily Caller that if Attorney General Eric Holder isn’t “doomed” because of his handling of Operation Fast and Furious, the entire Obama administration is.

“If the [Obama] administration continues to have full confidence in a failed administration by Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, then ultimately the administration is going to be doomed,” Issa told TheDC during an interview in San Diego on Saturday. “Eric Holder seems to have the full confidence of the president, and I can’t understand why.”

Issa chairs the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, putting him in charge of the principal vehicle House Republicans use to investigate the Obama administration. The California Republican has developed a reputation inside the beltway as “Mr. Subpoena” — a bulldog investigator who forces results.

Instead of his resignation, I would file criminal charges against him for dereliction of duty, willful failure to carry out his sworn duty to uphold ALL of the nation’s laws, preferential treatment of convicted felons based upon their race, religion and political status and impersonating a US Attorney General. I would tap into the minds of some of the nation’s best legal experts and throw as many criminal charges against the man as possible.

Eric Holder is no different than any other mob boss or crime syndicate leader. Rather than following the law, he makes his own law as he operates an organization that likewise has no respect for the law. And like any other moss boss, he deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life in jail with the rest of the criminal world.

A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched last week to a Florida elementary school after a girl kissed a boy during a physical education class.

School brass actually reported the impromptu buss as a possible sex crime, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

The assistant principal of Orange River Elementary School called in the cops after a teacher spotted the smooch Wednesday at the Fort Myers school. In fact, Margaret Ann Haring, 56, initially called child welfare officials, who directed her to contact the sheriff, according to a report.

The kiss apparently occurred after two girls debated over whom the boy liked more. That’s when one of the girls “went over and kissed” the boy. The redacted sheriff’s report notes that Haring “stated there were no new allegations of sexual abuse as far as she knew.”

Where once a week I have been offered an exhibition of my photographs in a particular area. Usually I refuse, but this time decided to accept. The exhibition will be held at the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Communities at the beginning of next year. Now I have to select the 40 best photos for the exhibition.

I was able to select 73. They are all like children to me, and I do not know which ones to keep. Under the cut 73 (!!!) of my best photos for the past 3 years. Please check the ones you like best

Carlos Rafael is living a 21st century rendition of Hemmingway’s classic “The Old Man and the Sea,” the Cape Cod Times notes, except in this case the sea is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement.

After the crew on a boat Rafael owns captured a giant bluefin tuna in the waters near Cape Cod, Rafael hoped to the sell the fish and perhaps net a something similar to the $396,000 that a 745-pound specimen sold for at an auction in Tokyo back in January. Rafael’s catch was 881 pounds.

However, the Times reports that Rafael received a rude awakening when his boat sought shelter in Provincetown Harbor on November 12:

“The authorities were waiting. Agents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement informed him they were confis­cating his fish — all 881 pounds of it.

Even though the catch had been declared and the boat had a tuna permit, the rules do not allow fishermen to catch bluefin tuna in a net.

‘They said it had to be caught with rod and reel,’ a frustrated Rafael said. ‘We didn’t try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn’t catch it with a net.”

In any case, after being towed for more than two hours in the net, the fish was already dead when the Apollo hauled back its gear, he said

A Big Sky Democrat senator joined a chorus of frustrated M-1 enthusiasts as Obama intransigents continue to ignore bipartisan efforts to return American heritage firearms from South Korea.

“Over a year ago, I made it clear that the State Department shouldn’t be denying responsible Americans their Second Amendment rights. It’s a shame that the State Department keeps slow-walking this process because what we’re talking about here is a piece of America’s heritage, nothing more,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D.-Mont.) , who is up for re-election in 2012.

Two years ago, the Republic of Korea offered to sell over 80,000 American-made Korean War-era M-1 Garands back to the State Department, but in 2010, the State Department refused to allow the historic weapons into the United States, said Erich M. Pratt, communications director for Gun Owners of America.

“The only thing that we can surmise is the anti-gun animus that this administration holds towards our Second Amendment rights,” said Pratt.

GOA issued a letter, e-mailed, and encouraged its members to put pressure on Congress to support the Garand sale, he said.

Yet, over a year after the 2010 decision to disallow entry to nearly a million firearms, the State Department has not replied to Gun Owners of America, he said.

There has been a great deal of talk about loyalty from bottom to top. Loyalty from the top to the bottom is much more important and also much less prevalent. It is this loyalty from the top to the bottom which binds juniors to their seniors with the strength of steel.--George Patton

Heard on Twitter (Jay Rosen): The super committee "failed" in the same sense that the Politburo "planned."

I am not a fan of protectionism. It is essentially a redistribution of wealth by political rather than free market means. It spawns injustice and misallocations of economic resources that hurt people and national unity and vitality. I have written extensively on how protectionist U.S. tariff policies virtually forced the seven cotton-producing Gulf States to secede in 1861. No serious historian believes that Union armies invaded the South to free slaves or because the U.S flag was fired upon at Fort Sumter. These post war myths were largely created to cover up the ugly politics of sectionalist greed that increasingly dominated American politics from 1824 until catastrophic war in 1861.

However, free trade unregulated by essential national interests has proved almost as disastrous as sectionalist-dominated protectionism. This is particularly true when free trade is not fair trade and politically backed business coalitions are allowed to dominate national economic policy. The latter case is generally the result of “crony” capitalism and government legislation dominated by the most powerful business lobbyists. This is essentially legislative protectionism, which can be just as destructive to free markets and competition as high import tariffs.

Globalism became a popular economic buzzword in the 1980s and began to accelerate in influence with passage of the NAFTA Treaty in 1994. Part of the thinking of globalism was that nations could prosper by specializing without regard for national security or over-concentration in a few areas. An important misguided assumption was that manufacturing was not essential to American prosperity—that we could prosper by concentrating on finance, product design, and more intellectual activities. Somehow we ignored the fact that the financial industry is essentially data processing and

paper-shuffling that can be duplicated wherever there is a concentration of intelligent and ambitious people.

In the last decade, American electronic component and semiconductor producers lost 42 percent of their jobs. Communication equipment producers lost 48 percent of their jobs. Textile manufacturers lost 63 percent of their jobs. These were not just factory jobs. Many were engineering and technology jobs formerly filled by U.S. engineering and science graduates.

We cannot all be bankers. Highly sophisticated banking can be done almost anywhere in the world. We cannot remain a powerful and independent nation by being just bankers, retail clerks, hospital attendants, hotel workers, hamburger flippers, and consumers. It is only a matter of time—it is already here—until the great American consumer market cannot be supported by the salaries of relatively low-skilled employees. Yet those are the kinds of jobs that are being left to us. Indeed, with less American earnings, there will be less demand for retail, restaurant, and hotel jobs. Nor can we depend on keeping financial jobs. They are even more mobile than manufacturing jobs.

Most of the computers, televisions, autos, cameras, toys, clothes, and furniture we buy are now imports. Most of those imports were once made in the U.S., and many were exported. Wal-Mart once took pride in providing American made goods to its customers. Now all of that is gone. Almost everything but groceries in Wal-Mart stores comes from overseas. Our annual trade deficit with China is $300 billion.

China has put savings ahead of spending, capital investment ahead of consumption, and manufacturing ahead of finance. We have done the opposite, but China has now become our banker.

Pat Buchanan lists some heart-breaking statistics in his most recent book, The Passing of a Superpower:

From December 2000 through December 2010, industrial production fell for the first time since the Great Depression. We lost one-third of our manufacturing jobs. A total of 5.5 million of them disappeared. Manufacturing jobs dropped from 27 percent of the American economy in 1950 to 11 percent at the end of 2010. In the last ten years alone, the U.S. has run up $6.2 trillion in trade deficits, of which, $3.8 trillion was in manufactured goods. Over $2 trillion of this was to China. The U.S. has had to borrow $1.5 billion per day to finance it. China now holds over $1 trillion worth of our Treasury securities. The hopes of America leading in advanced technology products (ATP) are now diminishing. From 2007 to 2010 the U.S. ran up cumulative ATP trade deficits of $300 billion with China alone. In a recent TV interview, Buchanan warned that China could reach military parity with the U.S. by 2020.

We need trade policies that benefit all Americans. We cannot afford the heady but treacherous idealism of globalism. In addition, we need immigration policies that are good for Americans. Since December of 2000, we have issued 10.3 million green cards inviting foreigners to come and compete for what is left of the U.S. job market.

However, there are two employment sectors that have been expanding rapidly. According to Stephen Moore, we now have 22.5 million government workers in the U.S, twice the number of manufacturing jobs. There were only 8.7 million government workers in 1960.

Besides that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14 million Americans are officially out of work, and as many as 11 million more have either given up looking for a job or have been forced to part-time work. Yet 8.1 million illegal immigrants hold jobs that should belong Americans. Is Congress serious about jobs?We need to correct our mindless devotion to “globalism” and dispense with the propaganda that Americans won’t do jobs from which they have only recently been displaced. Americans should have a government that is good for America and Americans.

Keep your nose out of other people's business, novel thought for a Marxist, I guess.========

The Obama administration on Monday called on a Mennonite-owned health insurance company to cancel its proposed 11.6 percent rate hike, marking the first time the government has tried to pressure a private company under the new health care law.

While Pennsylvania-based Everence Insurance said it needs to raise rates on about 5,000 customers to cover costs, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius called the increase “unreasonable,” holding it up as evidence that the government has an important role to play in reining in the cost of coverage.

“This sends a message to insurers around the country that the days of unchecked, double-digit increases are over,” Mrs. Sebelius said.

But Everence officials disputed the methods used by HHS to reach its conclusion, arguing that the agency calculated the plan’s loss ratio over a one-year period, instead of calculating rates based on a two-year period that they said would give a better idea of gains and losses.

Ever since the Department of Justice’s gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious became public, the Obama administration’s response has been slow and infuriating. Of particular concern is Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s lack of candor concerning what he knew and when he knew it.

This is not a typical case of bureaucratic bungling. A 40-year-old Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, and possibly a U.S. immigration agent, are dead because of a horribly ill-conceived Justice Department operation that went tragically wrong.

Hundreds of Fast and Furious firearms have been implicated in criminal activity, and another 1,400 firearms are on the street because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives engaged in gun-walking - the selling of firearms to straw purchasers in an attempt to locate major weapons traffickers in Mexico. This controversial tactic, involving thousands of weapons, means that brave law enforcement personnel along the border remain at risk.

As details come to light, a larger shadow has been cast on Mr. Holder. When initially asked under oath to say when he first knew about Fast and Furious, Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee on May 3, “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

But the evidence casts serious doubt over that claim. First, President Obama had commented publicly on the operation, noting on March 22 - more than a month before Mr. Holder’s sworn statement - that an inspector general had been assigned to investigate the matter.

Remembrance

To die for one’s country is not only an act of bravery, it is THE act of bravery. For soldiers, it is just an extension of their military career, a part of their duty. As leaders have asked their soldiers to sacrifice themselves for the good of the society, it is only right for leaders to go through the same motion. They should practice what they have preached.

As war is seen as a noble act, tu sat serves as redemption in case of defeat. It is also a way to tell the enemy: “You might have won the battle/war but you don’t deserve to win because you don’t have the chinh nghia (just cause).” And it is not only just cause: it is the moral belief that the cause they are fighting for deserves their total sacrifice. Continues below

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
==============================
My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
=============================
My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
===========================
*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
=============================
My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.